I want to talk a bit about our experience of what it is like to rent, and every now and then I think, ‘Thank God the government has done something to ensure that homes like the very average house – I will be polite today, the very average-type house – that I am renting at the moment, for probably a very overpriced weekly rental amount I do have to say, are improved. That is something I think our government has worked towards improving, and I can see improvements in the house that I am renting. This house has been a rental house for some time, and I can actually see within the house improvements that have been made – it is an older house – in alignment with the rental reforms that we have been making since we came to government almost 10 years ago.

This bill does act on a significant step of our government’s housing statement by allowing for the use of funds to create – and by God, this is important – a new dispute resolution body for rental disputes. I feel like if there were more renters in this place – and do I note that the member for Sandringham is the only one here on his side, including any members from the Greens, listening to and participating in this incredible debate, this really important debate. There are so many renters in Victoria, but I do give brownie points to the member for Sandringham for sitting through this and listening, as I am sure he is not a renter. But this is really important, right? This is the sort of stuff that renters across the state are talking about at barbecues and neighbourhood get-togethers, about the state of rentals and rental standards here. Indeed our government time and time again has brought bills before this house to improve the standards and the homes that folks like myself and many, many others are currently living in and will go to bed in tonight.

Now, thanks to our government, no-fault evictions are banned in Victoria. We made that market fairer for folks with pets – like me. I know that my two-year-old naughty beagle Ringo Starr does deserve his own Instagram page. He is such an exciting, cheeky beagle. But indeed as renters we are able to have a pet in our lives with the amount of enjoyment and love that that pet provides, not only for me when I need a bit of comfort at the end of the week after a tough week at Parliament, but also for my children in being able to look after such a lovable, cute fur baby as Ringo Starr. That is a plug for probably a new Instagram page that I will set up quite shortly for him. On top of this – and this is just so important; as I said, we are paying far too much for the very average, very well loved, over-loved home that we are living in at the moment – we have gone ahead and actually capped rent increases to once a year.

In fact when you look at the improvements to rental rights that were discussed at national cabinet last year, really importantly, you can see that many of the agreed-upon resolutions were actually things that Victoria had already done and gone ahead and implemented, and that is the absolute joy and true importance of having long-term Labor governments. That tells us that Victoria is once again leading the nation. I know that we like to say that, and it is a good problem to have in this place when you get to say it time and time again. I wonder how many times it has been said today; I have heard it quite a few times. I think in total we have made about 130 different rental reforms since coming to government in 2014 – 130 different rental reforms since coming to government in 2014 – and we are a government that has been in power for nearly 10 years. That goes to show the state of play when we came into government in 2014 that actually existed here in Victoria. We have had 130 different rental reforms. But the really great news about our government is we are not actually stopping there. There is more to do, and we are getting on and doing it, and that is because people like me and many, many renters across the state are speaking out about the state of the homes that they are living in, the experiences that they are subjected to, the interactions they have with landlords and other things.

There are a lot of stories to tell. I would love to tell all my stories here, but I am not sure I would have a rental property by the end of the week. Who knows? But I do have to say there is more to do. We are listening to renters, and we are getting on and we are doing it.

Our planned reforms will see all forms of rental bidding banned, thank God, stopping landlords from inflating rental prices by exploiting the desperation of a family looking for a place to rent. We are introducing a new portable bond system which tenants can take with them when moving between properties. That is really handy because, gosh, we pay a lot of bond and it can be difficult to get back. Sometimes there is a bit of disagreement between renters and landlords about what has happened at the property in moving between places. Renters can now take their bonds with them between properties.

We are also – and I love this – tackling dodgy practices in the real estate and property management industry. The real estate and property management industry in my experience – I would probably say I have been renting now for about 2½ years – are no friends of renters, and that has been very unsurprising. We are ensuring those responsible for engaging with tenants and landlords are actually doing the right thing through mandatory licensing and, most importantly, a training requirement. I have no idea what these people were doing before that training requirement was put in, but I do know that it is certainly a very good thing and folks like me benefit from it.

Of course what we are discussing today is a new dispute resolution body just for rental disputes, because what we know is there are a number of renters here in Victoria and sometimes there are disputes, and we need them resolved quickly. Also, I would say this is a really big step forward in creating a fairer rental market. There can be gross inequality between renters and landlords.

As everyone knows, the way the system currently works is that if you have got a problem with a rental property, whether it is something as simple as trying to get a landlord to pay for a broken appliance – we had the situation where our dishwasher would not work. I would like to say it was me, but my husband in my house was doing all of the dishwashing. After about three weeks of contacting our agent, saying, ‘Mate, we need to get a guy in to check the dishwasher,’ he truly had a bit of a hissy fit or spat the dummy one night when he was covered in soapsuds and he was sick and tired of having to send text messages to the agent, who is actually a really lovely guy. I am sure it was indeed the landlord who just could not be bothered to organise or pay for someone to come in and fix the dishwasher. Like I said, we were, and still are, paying a lot of money in rent for a property that was not what we thought we would be signing a contract for to go ahead and rent. One of the issues for renters is that you cannot very well go in and look at a property and switch on the dishwasher to see if it works or switch on all of the lights or switch on all of the fans or switch on the air conditioning to check if they work, even though that is probably doing your due diligence. You never know what the state of the property will be like when you sign the contract and you pay, I am estimating, around $5000, $6000, $7000 to move all of your stuff into the property, only to find out that it is not really fit for purpose. Then you have got to fight your landlord and fight your agent to have something done.

In the 50-odd seconds that I have got left I will say this is a really great bill. We have made 130 reforms, and we are not stopping there. We are going to make sure that disputes are heard by the right people and are heard quickly and resolved quickly so both renters and landlords can get on when there is a dispute. This is a really important bill. We have had in my time in the past six years a couple of different ministers who have felt really passionately about rental reform and have really engaged with caucus members like me. We might be few and far between, renters on this side, but I would say that we are far greater in number than renters on that side, including the member for Sandringham. I do want to thank the minister for bringing this before the house this sitting week, and I commend the bill to the house.